Shopping bag



Feb. 7, 1933. P. E. DRAHEIM 1,897,018

SHOPPING BAG Filed Oct. 10, 1930 INVEN OP;

Patented Feb. 7, 1933 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE PAUL E. DRAHEIM, OFLOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, ASSIGNOR TO PAUL KL'UGE AND PAUL KENDZIR, BOTH.OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA SHOPPING BAG- Application filed October 10,1930. Serial No. 487,760.

This invention relates to devices used for inserting, or placing, oraccumulating merchandise, or any small parcels, customarily collected orcarried during or from shopping trips.

One of the objects of this invention is to provide a container that willreadily open in such a manner that parcels may easily be inserted.

Another object is to provide a shopping bag that will automaticallyclose when grasped in a certain manner.

Another object is to provide a shopping bag that can be folded into thepossibly smallest parcel when not in use.

Other objects will appear from the following description and appendedclaim as well as from the accompanying drawing, in which- Fig. 1 is afragmentary perspective view of a simple shopping bag in open positiondesigned to operate and to be handled according to this invention.

Fig. 2 rough outline of the coil spring used in the top edge of theshopping bag, illustrating how this spring may be twisted and foldedwhen not in use.

Fig. 3 is a plain connection that may serve as a handle member and atthe same time facilitate a connection of the ends of the spring coil.

As illustrated in Fig. 1, one of the principal features of thisinvention is a coil spring fl, inserted in the top edge of the shoppingbag.

This coil spring is preferably endless and of closely wound form,endless for the reason that it will then always tend to spread or opento a circular or round shape as soon as it is released, and closelywound for the reason that it will facilitate a slipping of the attachedbag to desired positions and conditions, considering that a closelywound coil forms a suitably smooth surface over which eyes or rings ofthe shopping bag may slide quickly to desirable positions, whilesomewhat spaced wound coils might cause trouble in that the netting orother parts of the bag could become caught or entangled between thecoils.

At 5, for instance, a few coils are indicated 1 V in such a closelywound manner that the rings 6, preferably used in connection with thisbag, will easily slip over the comparatively smooth surface of such acoil to any ]position on the endless coil-edging of the A net 7 is shownattached to the rings 6 in such a manner that it will readily hang fromthe opened coil-ring-edge a in such a condition that a parcel or anyarticle may easily be inserted into this bag.

From the rough outline in Fig. 2 it will easily be understood that thecoil-edge may be twisted so that it will cross as indicated at 8 wherebytwo practically equal loops 9 and 10 are formed, which in turn may befolded one upon the other in the form of one loop; and, that the foldedloops may again be twisted in a similar manner and folded together; andthat this may be continued until a comparatively small bundle or parcelis made of the otherwise large coil-edge, around which the netting mayeasily be rolled to a compact suitably small package that will take uplittle room.

In this comparatively small form, the shopping bag may be carried in aladys handbag or in a pocket when not in use.

To one of the rings 6, a string 11 with a ring 12, as a handle, ispreferably attached as an additional convenience inasmuch as it servesto facilitate an opening of the shopping bag from the compact smallcondition. This string with the ring 12 is preferably arranged durin thetwisting and rolling of the netting in such a manner that at least thering 12 still protrudes from the small pack- By grasping the ring 12 andshaking the small package, the whole netting will easily undo, and thecoil-edge has the tendency to spread out to the circular and roundposition in which it is illus trated in Fig. 1, there by making thewhole shopping bag automati- When the shopping, either as to singlearticles or as to the whole shopping trip, has i been completed, the.shopper simply takes hold of any portion of the coil-edge whereupon allthe small rings 6 will slip along the coil-edge to the lowermost portionof the coil edge, the coil-edge in this manner forming the handle forthe shopping-bag, and the shopping thereby also closing itself automatev ically by the fact that all small rings arrange, themselves closely atthe lowermost portion of the hanging coil-edge while so carried by r ,7the shopper. v Again, a mere grasping of the lowermost portion of thecoil-edge, between any two of the small rings while retaining hold ofthecoil-edge in the carrying hand, however bringing. the lowerportion to anevenlevel I with thetcarriedportion,automatically'opens the bag. w 5 g aAs long as the small rings 6 are held by thenetting equallyjspaced, therings have the tendency -to slipv jto positions equally spaced on thecoil-edge,i.'especially so when the string p r ll is grasped by thehandle ring 12,. since this string is attached to one of therings andthe other rings are naturally drawn by the netting to their properlyspaced positions on the coil-edge. v v Though the preferable formconsists of an endless coil-spring-edge, athandle l3 of the formillustrated in Fig. 3 m'aybe used, having spiral grooves 14in which theends 15 of the, in this case otherwise disconnected, coil-spring aresecured or, applied in such a manner that with thishandleas a connectinglink an, endless edge isalsoformed. 7 v 7 Having thus describedymyinvention, claim: g r I,

' Ina shopping bag, an edge member of end- I less form made of a coilspring material adapted to, automatically. resume its normal open shapewhen released, rings slidinglyy disposed on the edge member, a shoppingbag proper attached to the rings and, adapted to be. held open bytheedge member, andla handle member attached to one of the rings v 1 v andadapted to facilitate an opening of the -I bag, the edge member beingshiftable within i the rings and otherwise exposed to be grasped V atanypointto cause the rings thereonto slide 1 l 7 .so as to close thebag. V 1

p In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my invention I havesignedmy name.

, V 'PAUL'E. :DRAHEIM-

